Old and Dusty Galaxies Grew Up Stunningly Fast, Say Experts

You’re probably familiar with the concept of light-years. Some stars and other celestial bodies are so far away from Earth that it even takes their light millions, if not billions of Earth years to reach our planet. That’s why some of the stars we see in the sky may have long since disappeared, and what we are seeing is actually more like a recap of the Universe’s history.

That’s the case for the light from A1689- zD1, which is only reaching us now with the help of the gravitational magnification from a spectacularly dense and massive (and far younger) galaxy cluster known as Abell 1689.

Light from A1689- zD1 was first noticed by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope some time ago. And based on its position near what is reportedly the oldest part of the Universe, it was long thought to have been one of the very first galaxies ever formed, helping usher out a time called the stellar Dark Ages when no stars existed